Outspoken Never Trump conservative David French sounded the alarm Thursday that the Supreme Court is about to elevate President Donald Trump's 'parade of horribles."
In a conversation with The New York Times' Emily Bazelon, French discussed Trump v. Slaughter — a case dealing with a president's ability to fire employees of independent government agencies. It involves Rebecca Slaughter, who Trump fired from her position as a commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission.
French told Bazelon, "I don't think you can analyze Slaughter without thinking of the Court's larger separation of powers jurisprudence, which can be summarized (at least so far) as follows: The president's executive power doesn't include lawmaking, and Congress' legislative power doesn't include execution.
"And much mischief has occurred because Congress has delegated so much of its lawmaking power to the executive, while clinging to various ineffective checks, such as creating multi-member commissions. The result has been less democracy and more entrenched power in the executive branch, with much of that power immune from political accountability…. It has been dreadful for America to see so much lawmaking power concentrated in the presidency, and many of our worst fears regarding presidential power are rooted in decisions taken by Congress over many years to punt lawmaking to the presidency."
French, however, isn't totally pessimistic where the High Court is concerned. And according to the Never Trump conservative, it remains to be seen whether its GOP-appointed supermajority will honor checks and balances or undermine them.
"If the Supreme Court is going where I think it's going," French told Bazelon, "then I think it's going to help us recover our democracy. If not, then the parade of horribles could get quite extreme, quite fast."
